


Genesis

by Mikaiyawa



Series: Genesis [1]
Category: Lovex
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-29
Updated: 2012-02-29
Packaged: 2017-10-31 22:00:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/348787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikaiyawa/pseuds/Mikaiyawa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mikko Red Elk knew everything would change, he wasn't allowed to go home, the man he thought loved him had ditched him like a hot rock and now he was trying to make his way in a new country.</p><p>He had his hands full already, trying to integrate, get new citizenship and work, he didn't have time for a new lover.</p><p>He didn't think his new friends would find a way to make him take time...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Genesis

Mikko wanted badly to crawl into a hole somewhere and pull the edges in after himself so he could huddle up and die. Customs had been pure hell, all the questions, the dubious looks, the waiting. At least they’d pulled him out of line so the rest of the passengers, regular tourists or normal businesspeople could go through.

His case was problematic; he wasn’t a tourist, or businessman or even a Serviceman on rotation through the countries embassies or international military base.

He was emigrating. Immigrating. Mikko wasn’t sure now which term was proper. He was coming home to a country that had born his mother but that he’d never visited in his short life.

The immigration officer frowned at his papers and read through them again more slowly before looking up with surprisingly compassionate blue eyes.

“You do realize this is highly unusual.”

English, Mikko tried not to laugh hysterically. Mama had been the one to foster his love of language, teaching him her birth tongue from the cradle even as his father taught him his tribes tongue and English. He’d gone to kindergarten and been hopelessly confused that none of the other children were fluently tri-lingual. Worse, that none of his teachers had approved of anything other than English. It had a taken a visit from his father to get them to unbend on **that** subject, and only after he’d spent a miserable six weeks being shut away alone with a teacher’s aide and no recess.

“Yes. I was given a choice. I chose this.” Mikko barely registered that he had answered in Finnish. He refused to think about another man’s choice and how it ended.

The man neatened the stack of papers and set them back on the desk. He’d barely blinked at the shift in languages, but when he spoke again in was with the soft fluidity of his mother tongue.

“We have you on the registry because of Evalina Mäkelä’s unusual service record. There were no irregularities with your birth; I fail to see why this is happening.”

Mikko winced, small country or not Finland had an amazing ability to keep track of its citizenry, and his mother **had** been one of their premiere linguists. She and his father had never married, but she had shifted her duty stations to follow Jonathan Red Elk wherever his service called him. Strangely it had worked very well, and Mikko had no doubts that if his parents had lived he wouldn’t be in this mess.

“It’s politics.”

The man leaned forward and stared into Mikko’s eyes.

“Politics. What can one honorably discharged serviceman, wounded in serving his country and the world have possibly done to warrant a political blacklisting of this magnitude.”

Mikko closed his eyes and willed himself to not cry. Tears wouldn’t help. He forced the words past a raw throat.

“He fell in love.”

~0~

“What they are doing is madness. All the boy would have to do to crush this pathetic attempt at secrecy is go on a talk show. That is what Americans do is it not?”

Ville Frösén frowned intently at his attaché and then at the Customs agent who had brought the troubling case to his attention. The agent cleared his throat softly and got a nod to continue.

“I believe the boy is better mannered than that, sir. He appears to be truly quite upset with how his lover has misbehaved and shaken over his circumstances. Honestly, what man wouldn’t be, to learn one of his fellow’s had killed himself…” Valle spread his hands in a gesture that made Frösén feel the man’s frustration. “He’s fully aware that he is being thrown away and feels he has nowhere else to go. He is far too proud to take his comrades path.” Valle shuddered, shameful that loving a man left one man exiled, another dead and at least a dozen more in limbo or public disgrace, while the cause of it all walked around with his freedom and good name unsullied.

“The boy has skills?” Frösén wasn’t about to just let an unskilled child take up residence, no matter how his case infuriated him. The customs agent spoke up again.

“Yes sir, he’s apparently something of an amateur linguist. We set him in a waiting area with other foreigners awaiting further instructions and Saari was able to identify German, French and several Arabic dialects from him as he spoke to the others in his waiting area. He was able to calm the Turkish woman of her hysterics and we were finally able to get the information we needed to contact her relatives to come speak for her.”

Frösén’s eyebrows went up; Saari was one of their premiere linguists and the Turk had driven her mad with her weeping’s and wailings.

“And his Soumi?”

“Fluent sir, a bit of a mid country accent, but given where his mother was from that’s unsurprising.”

He had one last question.

“Does the boy have a living relative? Someone to speak for him?”

“Yes sir,” his attaché offered a slim folder, “An aunt, his mother’s sister, Maria Mäkelä. She rents apartments and warehouse spaces, mostly as practice space to musicians. We have contacted her and she is willing to act as sponsor to her nephew.”

“Well, then, I see no reason why we cannot offer the boy asylum and residency, providing he passes the required tests. If those foolish Americans are so dead set on throwing him away we will simply have to pick up after them.” Frösén paused then in a seemingly unrelated comment asked. “Is the U.S. Ambassador at the Tampere Embassy still crying for a linguist?”

~0~

“Nea, Neee~aaa.”

Mikko winced but answered his aunt readily enough anyway.

“I’m out front Tädilleni Maria, unloading the shipping box.” He wished his aunt hadn’t gotten it into her head he was a girl inside a boy’s body. But somehow she had and now he was rather stuck. In six months he could test again and maybe this time he’d not have an idiot and actually get the Soumi language test not the Swedish and Sumi ones.

At least he’d been pleasantly surprised at the level of knowledge he’d had of Swedish, but his Sumi was pretty scattershot and had amused the woman giving him the oral test to no end. But he was registered as literate in one of the official languages of his new home country at least. Once he got the other one he could formally test for citizenship.

His Aunt peered into the mostly empty shipping container at him and frowned. Mikko groaned; he knew he was covered in dust and his hair was a mess. After his knee surgery they hadn’t let him cut it and initially it hadn’t been an issue. But then, after the mess with Thomas, he’d just been so busy he’d neglected it and now it was down well past his ears. Idly he wished he could have gotten just a bit of the curl his mother had had, curls looked good slightly rumpled. His dead straight hair just looked like hell if it wasn’t combed.

Fortunately this time he just got a fond sigh of exasperation, and shooed out of the back or the container with a stern injunction to go shower and make himself pretty. That she’d get the last few boxes.

He’d instantly protested, these last few boxes were all books, and thus _very_ heavy. Maria was well into her sixties and rather frail even if she hid it under a plump frame. She drove him crazy, but he still loved her dearly.

~0~

Sammy hid a grin at the protests out of Mrs. Mäkelä’s niece. He’d heard she had a relative come to live with her and been quietly relieved. The dear old lady was getting up there and couldn’t run things like she’d used to, she needed the help.

He’d expected a little blond thing, but when he finally saw the much mentioned Nea he was shocked. She was a little blond thing, but rail thin, even in a heavy sweater, and looked terribly worn, like she’d been sick. She was blonder than her aunt and her hair was raggedly chopped just above her collar and somehow was so straight that it looked like it had been ironed, nothing like her aunt’s riot of white streaked golden curls. Her face was angular, high sharp cheekbones and sharp chin and nose, not precisely _pretty_ , but striking.

The look of surprise though made him grin, then those shockingly **_blue_** , blue eyes were veiled behind long blond lashes and Sammy had to stomp hard on the urge to tease. None of the other tenants had said anything about Nea being shy, but almost all the other tenants were older people or middle aged families with school age children.

He’d been touring with his bands enough that he knew a shy reaction when he saw it though. Julian would have been all over this girl, smiling at her, teasing her into relaxing, making her feel a bit more at ease around men who were taller and larger than her. Jason would be charming, well unless he found a pretty little red-head to distract him, and Theon and Joonas would have tried to see how red they could make her blush.

The rest of the guys likely would be largely indifferent; she wasn’t pretty, or stacked or pushy enough for them to pay very much any attention to her.

But that wasn’t getting him anywhere, he’d offered, well been asked in a way that made saying ‘no’ politely difficult and now had a stack of boxes to move.

Mrs. Mäkelä left him her key and herded Nea off to do whatever girlie errand they had and Sammy stood in the open door of the container wondering how exactly he’d gotten suckered into this his first night home.

~0~

Sammy huffed as he set the last box down on the floor of the upstairs room that apparently was Nea’s. It made him feel a bit weird being in a girl’s room alone, not that he hadn’t been in any number of girls rooms, just he’d always been in their company before. He didn’t quite know what to expect, and whatever half formed notions he'd had had just been squashed flat.

There were no posters on the walls, nothing frilly or girlie or pink. The bed was covered in a quilt patterned in cream, blue and red; the clothes he could see in the open wardrobe were dark colors and mostly masculine style shirts and sweaters. He didn’t see a single pair of heels, just sensible boots and well worn sneakers.

A tomboy? But then why was she so shy with him? Was it just she had only just met him and was shy of strangers? Sammy’s eyes trailed over the books partly filling one of the heavy cases. He blinked and looked again. One shelf was filled with nothing but what looked like manuals for repairing military vehicles. A battered copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance looked strangely out of place as well as right at home next to the heavy books. Not what he expected at all out of a teenage girl.

His phone went off and Sammy was distracted away from the oddities of his newest downstairs neighbor.

 ~0~

Mikko sighed and pulled the stupid hair band off, the hairdresser had clucked and tisked at him but declared they were better off letting things grow out than to try and get him into a properly girly hairstyle right now. He’d gotten a much needed trim so he didn’t look so scruffy at least and she’d been happy to sell his aunt a handful of elastic hair bands to keep the short bits out of his face while the rest grew out. Around his aunt he made sure to wear the blasted things, but he’d rather use the simple clips if he really needed to keep his hair out of his face until it grew long enough that he could tie it back properly.

At least she didn’t fuss at him about it after he’d irretrievably stained the pink one with engine grease and motor oil helping Elsa get her car back in working order. He’d met Elsa at the grocers when her four year old daughter had decided to run off after something. Mikko had caught the little girl and tickled her as he carried her back to her mother. After a few more meetings and Elsa having her little Yugo refuse to start in the lot they’d developed an odd little friendship.

Now after the better part of his first fall and winter here he was quietly grateful to have a friend that his aunt approved of. He just wasn’t cut out to be the solitary sort.

It had been Elsa’s idea to get his ears pierced as a way of appeasing his aunt. Tädilleni Maria had never said anything, but had seemed quietly pleased when she saw the glint of the little ruby studs through the fall of his steadily lengthening blond hair. If nothing else he figured he’d fit right in, more than half the guys his age had their ears done if the folks he saw walking on the streets was anything to do by.

Elsa teased him about always being cold, but had shown him some really good charity shops where he could buy the things he preferred. His aunt had been amused the one afternoon they’d come home, red faced from the cold, laughing and carrying Sofia and several shopping bags. She’d been highly entertained by watching them sort though their finds. Mikko could do a little very basic sewing, he’d had the choice in the Army, expand on the limited amount his mama had taught him or catch hell for missing buttons. He’d learned and quickly learned that he could earn a bit of money from other soldiers who really didn’t want to bother. He couldn’t tailor his uniforms or anything fancy like that, but he could keep them neat and in repair and could do the same for others.

It had kept him in chocolate all through training and had made him popular in Afghanistan with the squads coming back in from the field a bit battered. Now it was one small thing his Aunt approved of. The other was that he cooked. If Elsa had her way his skills would be expanding soon.

Elsa could knit, and several of the items they’d found had been gotten with an eye to ripping them apart for yarn to reuse. He’d quickly learned though that pulling a sweater apart wasn’t quite as simple as it sounded and had gotten to see Elsa red faced and breathless in laughter as she tried to rescue him from half a sleeves worth of unraveled wool. He'd been grateful at the time that Sofia had been down for a nap. Getting giggled at by a five year old could be a bit much some days.

Mikko would have been perfectly happy going on like that, but Aunt Maria began taking him to clinics and it didn’t take long before he figured out why.

He’d forgotten for a while that Maria thought he was a girl trapped in a man’s body.

He’d been paralyzed, so furious he wanted to scream at the top of his lungs he wasn’t a girl, and he liked his bits exactly as they were. At the same time he was terrified. Maria was his family, his _only_ family, and until he got his citizenship straightened out she was his sponsor. He wouldn’t even have the dubious safety of a service assignment until after he’d passed all his languages tests and begun testing for citizenship. Mikko wished for the thousandth time that his Soumi language test hadn’t been interrupted by a fire alarm. What he’d completed boded well according to Olli, but an incomplete test wasn’t valid.

If he upset her too badly he could be in a hellish state of limbo, no sponsor, no passport, no country. And Mikko loved her; he really didn’t want to upset her.

He’d been in that state of near desperate dependence when she’d introduced him to Doctor Kärki. It had taken several visits with the doctor and his wife, who counseled men who were transgendered before they realized what was happening. Anja had been livid. But Frans had taken a more pragmatic route. By spring thaw Mikko was outwardly taking a hormone regimen that would start him on the three year path to becoming female. Mikko just found it amusing that there was such a wide array of brightly colored sugar pills in existence.

His Aunt hadn’t been happy it would take so long, but Dr. Kärki explained that slower meant for fewer health risks. After that she’d settled down and left Mikko mostly alone on the subject other than making sure he took his pills before he went out on his ‘silly run’ every morning.

She didn’t really approve of his habitual exercise, but after she’d seen him having trouble with his knee after she’d browbeaten him into stopping, trouble enough that she’d taken him to a clinic and been told there was _nothing_ they could do other than prescribe painkillers. Painkillers that had Nea begging her to not force him to take because they were ‘horrible,’ she relented on the exercise issue. That one of the clinics physical therapists had been in full agreement that exercise would help better than pills would had made his case far more effectively than his pleading had, had only chafed a little. He’d told himself at least he was able to go back to what worked without a fight every morning.

After that he’d settled down, studied for his citizenship tests, helped his aunt with the properties she owned and minded Sofia when Elsa had to work and couldn’t get her into care. He got himself into a regular routine of normal day to day activities. Shopping for the household, playing with Sofia, learning to knit with Elsa.

He wasn’t precisely _happy_ , but he was reasonably content with life.

With a little luck his service placement would be a good one. His case worker kept mentioning an Embassy needing a translator; maybe that would work out.

~0~

Vivian sighed as he walked up the drive toward Sammy’s apartment. Elsa had been at work when the band had gotten home early this morning and he’d been somewhat surprised to learn Elsa trusted his baby girl with someone he hadn’t met. Well, she’d been _talking_ about this Mikko guy for months, and he’d been decent enough to help out when she had car problems. Still he was being territorial enough that it **_bothered_** him. Elsa would laugh at him about it but he was protective of his girls.

At least the address had been familiar, even if Sammy’s reaction to getting called this afternoon about it had been less than helpful. A yawn and a mumbled set of comments about his landlady’s niece, add to that a bit of sleep garbled commentary about blond hair and pretty blue eyes and Vivian was left more than a little bit grumpy. He knew Sammy hadn’t slept last night as he had helped get everything ready so they could all be dropped at their homes to sleep for a day or a week after a grueling tour, but he’d hoped for more useful information than a sleep garbled commentary of his landlady having a niece with pretty blue eyes!

Vivian refused to try and put Sammy’s garbled comments about the girl’s size and figure into _any_ kind of context. Thinking about his friend’s sex lives was a quick way to go screaming crazy in a very big hurry. Bad enough that his band mates sometimes caught him and Theon fooling around on the bus when the boredom got to be too much, Vivian catching _them_ fooling around was even more mortifying, he didn’t really need to know about Jason’s birthmark or that Sammy had the stamina to go all night, he really didn't.

He was surprised to see Elsa’s battered blue Yugo in the drive parked beside Sammy’s gold Mercedes but he hadn’t asked when she was getting off work.

The sound of a squealing five year old girl had his heart lifting.

At least until he saw his baby girl getting chased by a strange man. Then he was all irate parent moving to protect his baby. He didn’t hear Sofia’s delighted squeal of ‘Isä’ or Elsa’s happy cry of ‘Vivi,’ he was too busy storming up to deck the bastard who was scaring his daughter.

That Sofia had been squealing in delight not screaming in fear never quite registered.

He had a glimpse of surprised blue eyes and fine blond hair and then he was flying through the air to land with a painful thump on his ass on the other side of the drive. Half a heartbeat later and he had a happy babbling Sofia in his lap and could hear Elsa laughing.

The mother of his child was laughing at him.

~0~

The explanation made no sense. Elsa’s friend Mikko who worked on her car was the same Nea of the pretty blue eyes that Sammy sometimes talked about. The person who baked the cookies Sofia loved and told her stories when Elsa was at work, the person who kept the buildings battered old generator running last winter until the storm let up enough that Mrs. Mäkelä could get out and get a replacement.

Clearly someone who was more than capable of taking care of herself; himself, Vivian was confused. Elsa’s story made no sense, but for now Vivian was willing to just call whatever it was that sometimes watched his daughter Mikko. Thinking about it too much made his head hurt more than his bruised ass.

At least they’d be touring again soon, and he wouldn’t have to think about the confusing little thing.

~0~

Vivi was terribly cute when he was flummoxed. And Mikko had her ex completely off balance. Sofia, bless her observant little heart wanted to know if her Isä disliked Mikko. **That** had been a bit of a verbal scramble to get out of. And bless Mikko for being level-headed about the whole mess, telling Sofia that her daddy was just short on sleep and reacting poorly to a strange man chasing her was at least _truthful_ , if not **all** of the truth. She'd noticed Mikko tended to not lie to Sofia if he could help it, something she heartily approved of.

Vivian would cope; he coped with weirder things all the time dealing with Theon getting bored on the road.

Elsa just wished she could go out tonight with Mikko, he was heading to a Turkish Market for something but Sofia was feeling cranky with the beginnings of a cold so she was staying at the hotel for the night. She knew the boys were going out tonight and half hoped they'd run into Mikko.

Oh how she wanted to see the look on Sammy’s face when the great lump finally figured out that Mikko and Nea were one and the same. Mikko still didn't believe her when she said that Sammy watched him.

~0~

Theon was looking at the pretty little thing Sammy had run into at the market. He hadn’t quite figured out if it was a boy or a girl under that baggy shirt and skinny jeans. Just when he’d decided one way they would do or say something that had him revising his opinion. Sammy had introduced ‘her’ as Nea and all but coerced the poor thing into coming along, by simply grabbing her free hand and tucking his arm around hers and then refusing to let go in a very un-Sammy-like gesture. Vivian though, had called ‘him’ Mikko and been rather wary, and the person appeared to answer to both. A pretty little puzzle, a puzzle with a habit of shying away from casual touches and veiling an amazingly blue set of eyes behind long eyelashes, and Theon adored figuring out puzzles.

They’d just been walking and now were pretty well twisted around. Christian kept insisting the club he was talking about was ‘just a couple streets over’ and if they kept going they’d find it soon. Vivian was starting to grumble that no beer was worth this and Sammy kept ducking his head to hide his grins.

Julian didn’t bother to try and stop his grins, but even he was starting to get uneasy. This was the Turkish part of town and they were a lot pale to be wandering around here after dark.

“This is ridiculous.” Theon blinked as the mild little blond with the string bag full of small wrapped packages pinched Sammy until he let go and walked away from the group to go over and talk to a pair of older men who had been watching them with dark and wary eyes.

“Affedersiniz, biz bir yer bulmak için çalışıyorlar…” Theon felt his eyes go round, after a few more phrases that sounded like complete gibberish to him there were a pair of nods and suddenly both men were chattering away at Nea like she, he, whatever, was an old family friend. After much waving of arms and chatter Nea came back.

“We need to go three blocks that way,” she pointed off to their left, opposite where Christian had been going. “And then back one, that'll get us to the club. Then we can follow that street back and it gets up to the street the hotel in on.”

“You, asked for directions?” Julian sounded surprised, but Theon was in complete agreement. “How many languages did you have to try?” Theon blinked, those initial bits of gibberish were more than one language?

“Two, three dialects of the second though.”

“Why so many languages?”

The crooked grin had Theon solidly coming down ‘male’ on the gender of their odd companion.

“Mama said you could never have too many languages to ask directions in.”

~0~

The next time Theon saw the odd little walking contradiction was when they’d invaded Sammy’s apartment for a bit of impromptu band work.

More critically he noticed Vivian sulking and scowling out a window and gone to look. He saw what looked like a mutant game of tag going on between Sammy’s little contradiction and Vivian’s almost six year old daughter. Every time Nea caught the little girl she’d get playfully tossed in the air and tickled until she squealed in laughter, and then she’d be set down and the whole thing would repeat.

Theon tipped his head to one side and considered, they weren’t really getting anything done anyway, it was a nice day and he didn’t want to deal with a sulky grumpy Vivian if he didn’t have to. A quick glance around and he saw that Jason was half asleep, Christian was doing scales and Julian and Sammy were making silly faces at each other in boredom.

That settled it.

Theon crept up on Christian and hit the keyboardists tickle spots as hard and fast as he could, and that got him an earsplitting shriek and a discordant thunder of keys when Christian hands had slammed down on his keyboard. The rest of the band jumped and just as Christian was turning to yell Theon let out a whoop of glee and shouted.

“Tag! You’re it!”

Theon was out the door and thundering down the stairs before his band mates could do much more than gape in confusion.

A heartbeat later and he heard Julian yell ‘not it’ and follow.

~0~

Mikko blinked in confusion when he saw a shrieking blond man come sprinting out the door that connected his aunt’s apartment to the stairs that led upstairs to Sammy’s. A half heartbeat later a gangly man with wild black hair came running out, mere moments later Sammy and another dark haired man came boiling out.

He blinked again. It looked like Sammy’s band had just hit critical mass and were expending some energy before they went crazy.

A moment later and Sofia was squealing as her papa came out the door and ran right for her to scoop her up in his arms.

Theon was laughing like a lunatic and running around at full sprint trying to keep away from Christian. Mikko couldn’t tell if Christian was trying to tag Theon or tackle him at first, but eventually Theon was caught by his shirt and tagged with a firm yell of ‘there, **you’re** it’. He’d almost gotten his shirt off before being tagged, and apparently decided to keep from getting caught by his shirt again by yanking it the rest of the way off.

In a move that Mikko was learning was normal for the flamboyant singer, Theon stopped and posed. He threw his chest up and out and planted his hands on his hips and just preened for a long moment as he surveyed his scattered band mates. Mikko huffed and waited. Theon swaggered about in a way that made Sofia giggle and made the sun glint off the gold hoops in his nipples.

The rest of the guys moved so they would have plenty of time to run if Theon lunged their way. After a few mock charges Mikko lost patience.

“Quit posing you big peacock.” Theon turned and pouted, and then lunged for real. Mikko yelped, swore and dove out of the way scrambling for the cover of the next nearest warm body.

Sammy yelped as he was grabbed by the wrist and yanked hard. He stumbled and fell into Theon’s path. A moment later and he was scowling up at Theon from his position flat on his ass in the grass.

“You’re it,” Theon sang out in glee just before he hauled ass away again.

Sofia was watching with wide delighted eyes as Sammy rose and with quiet grace started stalking her and her papa. Vivian tried to delay the inevitable by tossing his daughter at Sammy. Sammy was expecting the move and caught the little girl easily then snaked out an arm and grabbed Vivian as well.

“Tag, you’re _both_ it.” Sammy grinned ferally and just to keep things fair he helped Sofia chase Jason down.

Mikko was breathless from running and laughing when Elsa came by after work to retrieve her daughter. He missed seeing the odd look on his Aunt's face as she watched them all playing in the yard.

~0~

Vivian fretted, Elsa was supposed to bring Sofia with her to the show tonight and Marko said she hadn’t come past the bouncers yet. If something had come up she would have called, he hadn’t seen his little girl in over a month and the band was going to be on tour out of country for three months. This was going to be his last chance to see both his girls and he didn’t want to miss it.

“Hey Vivi?”

Vivian spun in place to face Brian, their sound guys little brother and their very able driver. The slender blond looked a bit perplexed.

“Elsa and Sofia are here, but they didn’t come alone. What do you want us to do with her, ah, friend?”

“Let ‘em in Brian, Elsa probably had car trouble and caught a ride in with someone we know.”

Vivian nodded enthusiastic agreement to Theon’s dry comment and was on his knees to cuddle his baby girl a heartbeat later. He blinked in surprise when he realized who the friend was who had brought his girls to him. Mikko, Mikko with his hair mostly tied back and wearing a sweater that was clearly Elsa’s work in graduated shades of red, Mikko hanging back so Elsa and Sofia could have his undivided attention, Mikko who was quietly talking to Theon as his friend grabbed him for an explanation.

“The car wouldn’t start and Mikko didn’t think he had time to fiddle with it, so he brought us in.” Vivian leaned into Elsa and hugged her back. He felt guilty and wished not for the first time that Elsa would let him replace that damn Yugo with something more reliable.

He wished he could both be here cuddling his girls and over by Theon listening in.

~0~

“Why you,” Theon asked, watching the little enigma with narrowed green eyes.

Mikko just blinked at him in confusion.

“Why me, what?”

“Why did you bring Elsa and Sofia in?”

That got him a look of disgust and a very rude snort.

“Because you guys are going to gone touring for the next few months and Elsa wanted to make sure Sofia got to see her papa before you guys left. I wasn’t about to trust that starter to work twice without me there to kick it.” Mikko shook his head in exasperation. “At least now Elsa will let me rebuild the damned thing.”

Theon blinked and mentally tallied some things up. The guys other than Sammy had a running bet, this tilted thing even more in favor of him and Christian being right. And Theon wasn’t above hedging things a bit.

“So… are you hitting on Elsa? Because if you are…” Theon’s voice trailed off at the look on Mikko’s face. He’d seen looks like that on Elsa’s face many times before and had started calling the look the ‘ **you** are a _complete_ **_idiot_** ’ look. Maybe he was wrong then and Mikko really was a girl.

“I’m gay, okay? Elsa’s like the sister I never had.”

Theon didn’t have the time to ponder that when Marko came by with the three minute warning. All he had time for was the bands little rituals before going on stage and then the show.

~0~

“They _didn’t **know**_?”

“Doesn’t look like it.”

Mikko’s tone was exasperated and a little annoyed and Elsa couldn’t blame him. After almost a year _none_ of the guys had clued in or bothered to **ask**.

“Oh god, **_men_**!” Elsa threw her hands up in frustration. A soft cough had her looking back at Mikko who grinned and waggled his fingers at her.

“Hi. Male, sitting right here.”

Elsa started laughing.

“Idiot men then.”

Mikko’s crooked grin crept out.

“Still sitting right here, I just hide it better.”

Elsa changed tactics.

“Has Sammy even figured out you’re a boy yet?”

Mikko blinked and a faint flush of red crept up over his high cheekbones.

“Doubtful, but he’s not home much.”

Then six hot, sweaty and very happy men piled in and Sammy plunked onto the couch beside Mikko, letting Vivian take the spot by Elsa. Elsa tried not to stare in shock as Theon, ever the flamboyant idiot, tried cuddling into Mikko’s lap.

“Give us a kiss darling.”

Mikko crinkled his nose and turned his face away from Theon’s kissy faces.

“How about, no.”

Elsa was giggling when after a few more attempts by Theon to collect a smooch Mikko resorted to planting his icy cold hands on the stage hot skin of Theon’s sides. The resulting shriek and recoil at least got Theon out of Mikko’s lap, but it had Mikko wriggling a finger in an ear to clear it.

“Okay, you win. He can go that high. Lemme know when you want that tranny rebuild.” Mikko shook his head again and winced.

Elsa couldn’t stop the giggles bubbling out to save her soul. Christian had his hand out in the classic ‘pay up’ pose and Julian, Vivian and Jason were all reaching for their wallets. Theon looked smug and Sammy just looked confused.

“Vivi,” Elsa blurted, “you didn’t?”

Vivian flushed and spluttered defensively.

“I thought he was a girl, he’s confusing enough to be a girl.”

“You guys really thought he was a girl?” Sammy’s voice was soft and made all his band mates flinch.

“You’re the one who still calls him Nea,” Theon defended even as he took his half of the cash Christian collected.

Sammy gave Theon a look that had Elsa giggling like mad. Only Sammy could pack that much of a chiding lecture into one mute stare, and he tipped his head like he was peering over glasses that weren't on his face tonight.

“He was introduced to me as Nea, and my landlady calls him Nea. I **like** where I live.”

Elsa just hugged her aching ribs and laughed until she cried.

~0~

Sammy sighed and stared out the bus window at the passing scenery. White, white and more white, snow was covering everything in a concealing layer of glittering white fluff. The last shows had been a blast but he was glad to be turned back toward home. Idly he turned his eyes to his band mates. Julian was asleep, half curled around his pillow in his bunk. Jason and Christian were playing cards. Vivian had cards in front of him but was staring out his own window. Theon was just watching and heckling. At least this time they weren’t playing for money, just for chocolate drops and gummies.

One more show and they’d have a bit of time off to write for the next album, not that they hadn’t been working on a few new songs already. Sammy looked forward to having some time to really focus on things again.

Sighing he settled back into his seat and went back to staring out at a snow covered landscape.

~0~

Listening to Joonas grouse gave him a headache. But for some cracked ass reason the singer had the heebie jeebies around his downstairs neighbor. Sammy really didn’t understand why. The only thing he could think of was that Joonas was uncomfortable with a man who looked so androgynous, but that was silly. Vivian and Adam both were pretty enough to be girls. Hell, he and Adam fucked around on a regular basis.

Bailey liked anyone who would feed him, and Sammy already knew that Mikko was a stellar cook. He’d been invited to several meals with the Mäkelä’s; it was becoming almost a ritual now. Come home from a tour and get fed a really good meal before having to face his empty disaster of an apartment.

Chriss had been largely indifferent, but like Jason and Christian was being won over by food. But all three had a not very well hidden sweet tooth. Last time both bands had been home the three had utterly killed a full size sheet pan of baklava. There hadn’t even been crumbs left when they were done. Sammy wasn’t sure that one of them hadn’t licked the pan when they were done.

Mikko hadn’t batted an eye, just pulled out another pan and let the rest of the bands membership plunder it to crumbs as well. Then he’d gone on to feed them a good home cooked meal.

Joonas had grumbled a bit afterwards, but his misgivings hadn’t kept him from stuffing himself full on homemade dumplings and roasted chicken and vegetables. At least he never said anything negative about Mikko's cooking.

None of them was about to say 'no' to a free home cooked meal. Not when they’d had so many bad fast food ones, and _knew_ there were more in their immediate future. If they were lucky there wouldn't be any truly terrible meals this trip.

~0~

Mikko wanted to laugh and spun in place to purge a bit of extra energy. He’d tested for Soumi and this time hadn’t had to stop for a fire alarm. He was confident he’d passed with room to spare.

After a moment of just soaking up the warm sun he took off toward the park.

He felt like being a kid for a little while, and there were swings.

One more test, just one more test and an oath and he was safe. He could take up a placement, find his own apartment, and have his own life again. Just one more test.

~0~

Mikko heard something shatter downstairs and was at the railing a heartbeat later looking down. His heart froze in his chest when he saw his aunt lying in a limp heap on the floor and was vaulting the railing without any thought for how loudly his knee was going to scream at the landing. He ignored the bits of broken glass cutting his legs as he scrambled to feel for a pulse with one hand and fumbled for his phone with the other. Somehow he remembered to dial 112 not 911 and got emergency services.

Somehow the operator on the other end was able to get him calm enough to babble at her in Finnish rather than the anguished polyglot of languages he’d started with. Half sobbing he managed to get all the information out as he rolled his aunt into the recovery position and monitored her thready heartbeat and bare whisper of breathing.

It took hours, at least it felt that way as Mikko waited for emergency services to arrive. When EMS did turn up everything moved in the flurry of high speed, slow motion that always seemed to happen in emergencies. The ride to the nearest hospital was hellish, Mikko wrung his hands as he answered every question the paramedic put to him as best he could.

At the hospital things didn’t get better. Tädilleni Maria was wheeled into a room where Mikko wasn’t allowed to go and he was set down to do paperwork. The papers just wanted him to put in writing what he’d already told the paramedics. Printing neatly took everything he had but eventually he just gave in and cried.

He’d only just taken his citizenship test, this couldn’t be happening now. Things were almost settled, he couldn't lose her now.

Mikko barely felt a pair of gentle arms wrap around him as he broke down into helpless sobs.

~0~ 

Staff Sergeant Tyler Ryan was musing over how quiet the international base was this time of year when his phone went off.

“Ryan, whoa... Sy slow down.” Ryan tried to get his long time squad mate and best friend to slow down his flood of chatter enough that he could decipher the tangled drawl into actual words. After a pause and several deep breaths Syler tried again. Ryan felt his stomach drop into his boots.

“Mike called, and… shit. Has he taken his oath yet? Okay, that’s not good. You talked to the Ambassador? Oh, _he_ told _you_. Well, shit.” Ryan scrubbed at the back of his neck. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll grab the guys here; we all have a bit of leave time and its quiet, no reason for Sullivan to bitch.” He reached for a pen and paper. “What’s the address again? Okay, okay, got it. We’ll see you there.”

Throwing the pen back onto his desk Ryan hung up his phone and went to grab the rest of his squad mates who felt one Mikko Red Elk had been given a raw deal.

They had a squad mate to hold together.

~0~

Finding all the paperwork had been a nightmare. Mikko was grateful for Syler’s skill with locks, even if he still didn’t want to know anything about how or why he’d acquired it. Tädilleni Maria’s papers had been in three locked drawers in her desk, her will and insurance papers had been in a locked box in one of those drawers. Thank god his Aunt had been one of the meticulously organized sorts of people; he had everything now at his fingertips. All the papers for the apartments, the warehouse and the little rental cottage he'd never known about before, it was all there. He didn't have to worry so much about something coming up and biting him on the ass, he now knew everything, right down to the name of the tax assessor Tädilleni Maria had done all her business through.

He hadn’t known her heart condition was so bad, hadn’t realized her last physical had shown her heart and lung function had deteriorated so much. There were things he could have done if he’d only known, little things, cutting back the amount of salt and red meat they consumed getting her to go walking with him. Mikko sobbed softly, so many things he could have done if he’d only **_known_**.

Tädilleni Maria’s tenants all knew about the changes. Most had been at her memorial service, Mikko has all but collapsed in tears there again. All his family was gone now. He only barely remembered being told he’d passed his citizenship exam. Mikko knew his oath was scheduled but couldn’t have said when it was, his mind was too stuck on the fact that the apartment was so _empty_. No music, no sounds of his aunt puttering around in the kitchen or with her papers for the warehouse or apartments. Not her papers anymore, _his_ papers now. Everything would be passed to him the moment he'd sworn his oath, taxes had been paid and everything was now fundamentally his. One set of words and it would be his for real.

They’d had plans to renovate the warehouse, things they’d wanted to do to the apartments. Airlocks on the back doors, covered places for individual woodpiles, renovations of out of date kitchens and furnace rooms, Mikko had to turn away he didn’t know what to do now.

It all hurt too much to think about.

~0~

Sammy felt jealous, irrationally, insanely, impossibly jealous. He wanted to be the one Mikko turned to. He thought what he’d felt was nothing more than simple concern for a man who was turning into a friend. That evaporated in a puff of overheated emotional steam the instant he watched one of the men in the distinct dark blue uniforms that US Marines wore put an arm around Mikko’s shoulders and watched the small blond disintegrate into tears.

Watching his landlady be put in the ground was disturbing as hell.

Watching the person he'd been wistfully wanting for almost six months curl up in someone else’s arms was a bit maddening. Then watching Mikko throw himself into project after project the summer and fall after, well, Vivian said he was doing it so he didn’t have to think. That made sense.

But sooner or later Mikko wouldn’t be able to hide behind renovations, he’d have to sit down and think, and Sammy was terrified Mikko would break down when he had to deal with his personal demons head on.

Winter was coming; he hoped he was home when Mikko finally broke.

~0~

Sammy froze as he walked toward the apartment building. There was a dark spot in the step that shouldn’t have been there. It wasn’t Vivian on his step waiting for him to come home. He’d just been at Vivian’s and left the older guitarist sharing a smoke with Christian and talking about some insanity that had happened on tour.

Whoever it was wasn’t smoking, that let out almost ninety percent of his other friends. God, but they all needed to quit. Elsa was right; it was a filthy and expensive habit.

They were curled in a ball on the step and looked miserable. Sammy heard a sniffle and didn’t think it was from the cold making their nose runny. It gave him a very bad feeling.

Sammy got closer and recognized the pattern of the knit hat and the straightness of the pale hair.

“Mikko?”

The figure jerked and looked up at him.

“You never call me Mikko.”

Sammy dropped his bags and knelt down beside Mikko.

“I like where I live.”

That got a wan smile. Sammy reached out and cupped one cheek and swore when he felt how chilled Mikko’s skin was.

“How long have you been out here?”

A little shrug, then an answer.

“I dunno, couple hours. I watched the sun go down.”

That was just the answer Sammy didn’t want to hear. Sunset had been hours ago and it was cold as fuck out. No wind thank god, but still really damned cold. Sammy looked into Mikko’s eyes, but it was dark enough he really couldn’t see much. The tiny tremors told him that the smaller man was likely chilled completely through.

And Elsa laughed when he’d bitched about being cold this fall. Mikko was always cold unless the rest of them were melting from heat. Even in the hottest part of summer Mikko's hands were icy cold, he used them to get Theon off him on a regular enough basis.

Sammy checked the door, it was unlocked. He scooped Mikko up and hauled him bodily indoors. To his relief the door to the downstairs apartment was also unlocked. He ran a hot bath and stripped a scarily compliant Mikko down to his shorts and t-shirt and set him in it. Only then did he go rescue his bags and his guitars from the cold.

He didn’t take them upstairs though, he wasn’t sure he trusted Mikko that far. He set them just inside the door of Mikko's apartment.

Apparently he’d taken longer than he thought, that, or Mikko was more of a stubborn son of a bitch than he’d thought. Mikko was out of the tub and dressing in dry clothes. He looked better though, his lips weren’t blue for one, and his hands weren’t shaking as he buttoned his flannel.

“You okay?”

That got him another wan smile, but Mikko was looking him in the eye, so at least freezing himself to death wasn't something he'd tried doing on purpose.

“Yeah, just got lost in thought and wasn't paying attention.” Mikko shrugged. “Classic stupid human trick. When did you guys get back in?”

Sammy kept his frown off his face, but only just, and he couldn't stop the worry from coloring his tone.

“We just got in this afternoon. I was making sure all the guys got home okay.”

The smile on Mikko's face gave him a chill, it didn't reach his eyes. And Sammy felt a shudder crawl down his spine at the way Mikko tried to divert attention by asking what all the guys wanted for a 'welcome home, you survived touring again' dinner.

Mikko was trying too hard to be normal.

~0~

Sammy watched Mikko very carefully whenever he was home after that, and managed to blackmail Joonas and Adam into checking on him when they were in town and Sammy wasn't. Joonas bitched, but did check up on Mikko, officially he claimed it was for the free food, unofficially Sammy wondered if Joonas might be warming up to Mikko. When they were all gone he started hitting up other friends. Elsa checked on Mikko often, but she had the best excuse with Mikko still mindering Sofia on many school day afternoons while she was at work.

Gradually he started being able to relax. Mikko smiled and it reached his eyes again and he started laughing again although it still sounded faintly hollow.

As the weather warmed again he started up on projects again. The renovations on the warehouse started up again and the building was essentially gutted to make way for improvements. The few bands that had been renting space he found other situations for until things were settled again. Re-flooring the four levels went fairly quickly, but putting in internal walls and wiring everything in was slower. For one Mikko was insisting on better soundproofing between floors and rooms and he wanted better wiring and more outlets. And given how Sammy bitched about their old practice space never having enough outlets to plug everything they needed in, well, Sammy knew why Mikko was being insistent. When bands started moving back in they'd be grateful for the forethought.

Sammy was faintly surprised when he learned that the person Mikko had been relying on for information on what a band needed for practice space had been Joonas. More surprising Joonas had warmed up to Mikko at some point, and now was treating him in more or less the same fashion he did his other casual friends. He was still an abrasive fuck, but Sammy was pretty sure he'd defend Mikko with his life if he ever felt it was needed. Not that any outsider would likely notice the difference, half the time Sammy wasn't sure what Joonas thought of the shorter blond man.

Adam was a bit bemused by the change in opinion and Sammy was right in step with him on that. Normally it took Joonas _years_ to warm up to someone. But neither of them was going to complain, it made lunches over at Mikko's a **lot** more comfortable. And from the sounds of some of the conversations over their communal meals somehow Mikko and Joonas had found something in common.

 ~0~

Sammy watched as Jason walked up the mess that was the drive, Vivian and Theon were a few steps behind him and like Jason had guitar cases in hand.

“When is this mess supposed to be a driveway again?”

Sammy smiled and waved lazily at Theon's grumpy question.

“The crew's supposed to be back tomorrow morning to finish all the underground stuff. So couple days.”

Vivian huffed and set down his guitar case and gratefully accepted a beer.

“Why now? I thought the drive was okay,” grumbled Theon as he popped the top on his own beer.

“Okay?! It had potholes big enough to eat Elsa's car whole!”

Sammy shared a grin with Jason as they say back to enjoy watching Theon and Vivian burn off extra energy by arguing.

~0~

Sammy came home from another local show and was tired enough he knew he should just drag himself upstairs to bed. But when he got into the foyer that held the steps up to his apartment he was distracted by the open door to Mikko's. It had gotten easier to think of the place as Mikko's over the past few months and most of the other tenants liked Mikko's style of dealing with problems. A water heater that was being cranky was looked at then just replaced, a lose railing was repaired, asking for something to be looked at tended to get smaller problems dealt with while they were still small. The leaky shower head in Sammy's bath got dealt with within a day of Mikko hearing Sammy grousing about it. And the slow drain he hadn't mentioned got fixed the same day. That was making the older tenants very happy with the new landlord.

That Mikko had a habit of being scrupulously fair and exceedingly open helped.

But an open door was a bit odd and some of the sounds coming from that open door grabbed onto Sammy's attention and had him peering in curiously.

Mikko was nailing a bit of trim in place around the area where the oven was in his kitchen. Sammy blinked, Mikko's kitchen looked completely different now, the small island stove top had been replaced with a larger and rather intimidating one, the single oven was now two stacked on top of each other. The useless narrow end cabinet had been taken out entirely and replaced with more counter space. There was still a silly narrow upper cabinet but Sammy suspected it was more useful now than it had been.

More entrancing Mikko was just wearing his undershirt, and was covered in a fine sheen of sweat. Sammy just stood there and watched as Mikko quietly began to sweep up shavings and saw dust from the re-tiled floor. At least Sammy _thought_ it was re-tiled, he didn't remember the floor being little red squares before.

“When did you guys get back in town?”

Sammy jumped and flushed at Mikko's question.

“We've been back, was just over at Christian's hammering out some recording stuff.” Sammy's voice trailed off rather weakly as he realized he was rambling. But Mikko just nodded and dumped the filled dustpan and swept some more of the debris up.

“Your timing is good.”

Sammy held his breath for a moment as Mikko smiled, but the smile lit his eyes so he let it out in a relieved sigh.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, all the kitchens are redone. Mine was last, I can finally feed people properly again.”

Sammy blinked; given the chance Mikko fed people half to death. Another oven meant, well, he had no idea, but he suspected it meant more food.

“Wait, all the kitchens?” He didn't remember his kitchen being redone.

Sammy heard the sigh and deliberately didn't look. Elsa and Mikko shared a look when he forgot things, fond and exasperated. He really didn't want to see it just now. Not when he'd had another relationship go bust because he forgot things.

“Yep, I did yours last time you were gone on tour. I figured you wouldn't notice it until you were home for longer than a day.”

Sammy winced. Okay, he was inobservant of things, but that was just low. But Mikko wasn't paying attention to him; he was putting away the broom and dustpan and washing down the counter top, and then washing his hands. When Mikko turned back around Sammy gave in and just came in and set down his bag and guitar case.

“Um, thanks?”

“Don't worry,” Mikko's smile was fond, “I put the coffee maker right back where it belonged.”

Sammy winced, that might be why he hadn't noticed the changes in his kitchen. And that meant Mikko had given it a good cleaning, then his face went blank. He couldn't remember if he'd had dirty dishes in the sink or not.

~0~

Elsa was right; Sammy was cute when he was befuddled. Mikko quietly stomped on that thought. Sammy was a tenant, a _straight_ tenant. Kind of off limits. To distract himself Mikko caught Sammy up on the gossip around the building, all the things he'd missed being gone this last week. While he talked he let his hands work. All his old squad mates had taken to shipping him things. Once a week or so he'd get a drop ship box from somewhere in the world delivered to his desk at the Embassy. His coworkers found it amusingly American for him to get care packages from all over the place.

Not that any of them complained when he shared the wealth around. Not when it was Arabian coffee beans so fresh you had to roast them yourself or dark Mexican chocolate so spicy Aapo could only eat it a teeny tiny nibble at a time.

He'd been obscurely grateful that he'd inherited his Aunt's Passat with everything else; some of the care packages he got were **_not_** small. Syler's grandmother was one of those Mid-western dust bowl survivors. Her pantry would feed a family of ten for _years_. She and his mother would have gotten on very well. It just occasionally got hard to explain when he was unloading a smallish shipping container into his car why it was all non perishable goods and things like flour and what not.

Mikko was glad Sammy wasn't around when he had to remodel the small downstairs room off the kitchen into a larger pantry. Sammy teased him about being domestic as it was, learning he was being aided and abetted by half a dozen grandma's from all over the world really wouldn't help. As it was he was looking at buying another chest freezer. Nana Ryan was a good southern woman and once Tyler had opened his fat mouth she'd sent him a load of things he'd _never_ have been able to get otherwise. But sixty pounds of pecans and forty of walnuts took up a lot of freezer space. And the look on Theon's face when he's found the jars of Maple, Caro and Golden syrups, then he'd found the various types of molasses and just shaken his head and walked away. Thank god he hadn't looked deeper and seen the bottles of proper rose and orange water from Ahmed and the Mexican vanilla pods and blocks of Abuleta chocolate from Jesus and Manuel.

All he needed for a major baking binge was butter and eggs. He had jam, jelly and fruit preserves for all over the US, he half suspected some of what he was getting was overflow that in country family was happily shifting over onto some other unsuspecting fool.

He'd happily take it while it lasted. If nothing else it let him treat Elsa and Sofia to jam tarts that were a lot more varied than the lingonberry and strawberry they were used to. It had also let him in on a little secret, Vivian liked plum and fig preserves. And preserves on waffles with sausage would make Vivian amenable to just about anything.

At least that's what Mikko was assuming, he wasn't sure he wanted to think to hard about Vivian's answer of 'sure, okay' to Theon's playful demand after breakfast for a blow-job otherwise. He wasn't sure if the rest of the bands bland reaction was just a hint that Theon and Vivian were rather closer than Mikko had previously suspected or if they had another bet riding and were just yanking his chain to see how high he'd jump.

Things he wasn't sure of he'd let ride for now.

~0~

Things rode a lot longer than Theon expected.

For one, in spite of Mikko's bland comment over a year ago that he was gay; he appeared to be all but asexual in company. None of them had ever seen him pay any attention to a guy. Well, he treated Sammy rather fondly, but Sammy was oblivious and Mikko didn't appear upset when Sammy came home with yet _another_ disaster of a girlfriend. Thank god he hadn't brought home another Jani; that would have been hellish to explain. He laughed at Antti's antics when the Negative guys had come over to hang out and quietly brushed off and ignored Larry's un-subtle hints and softly delivered cracks about sex. He even appeared immune to Jonne's ability to be wickedly cute and would just accept Jonne pouncy cuddles without reacting in any way Theon could see. And as far as Theon knew even straight guys would get hard if Jonne pounced them for a cuddle.

Larry had noticed, and Jay had offered the suggestion that maybe they should try setting Mikko up with guys they knew.

That had provoked an interesting reaction out of Sammy, one that had all three bands looking at him like he'd lost his mind. He'd vetoed it out of hand, something that was so out of character that they all stared at him in shock.

“Fuck man, you want him, you better let him know,” snarked Joonas.

Theon blinked at the way Sammy rolled his eyes and sighed.

“He doesn't need all us fuck-ups trying to fix his love life. When was the last time any of us had a steady girlfriend? And you don't count Jay.”

The drummer just shrugged and took another slug of his beer. He was used to getting ribbed about the relationship with his girlfriend of almost ten years.

A brisk round of teasing and the subject dropped.

At least for the night.

~0~ 

Theon started watching how Sammy acted around Mikko. For one, he noticed if Mikko was around Elsa and Sofia tended to be around as well and once when Elsa had gotten called in to deal with an emergency only she could handle Mikko had brought Sofia to see Vivian before they went jaunting out of country again. That trip he'd kept a close eye on things, using the excuse that Elsa wasn't around to mind Sofia, not that the six year old misbehaved more than any other trip.

He learned Sammy hovered.

Well, Sammy would mother-hen _any_ of the guys if he had any reason to think they weren't on their top form. He tended to be just as overprotective of Sofia as Vivian was, but this was different somehow.

Christian made a quiet observation that had all of them sitting back and thinking hard about their relationships with the little American.

He wasn't looking at any of them for more than friendship because he thought they were straight and not interested.

Mikko wasn't looking for a lover elsewhere because his first lover had misused him, though they didn't know how badly. Just that he'd come here as a result.

Thomas Kennedy had been making the news rather a lot of late in regards to several dishonorably discharged servicemen. And a blind man would have been able to see how unhappy Mikko was every time the man appeared on the news. Theon felt it was stupid, and tabloid gossip had no business making international news. Julian had observed that given the man was a president’s son, the _currently_ _serving_ president’s son in fact, it could have some bearing.

They'd debated it loudly over dinner, and at the end of the night the handcuffs had come out and Vivian had been strutting smugly at breakfast after wearing Theon out.

Sammy had noticed, and other than a comment of 'I won't ask' and providing a cushion for Theon to sit on had left them be.

The rest of the band had razzed the daylights out of them, and when Antti and the rest of the Negative crew had dragged themselves down to breakfast they'd joined in with vigor.

But Christian's comment had provoked a bit of thought. What if Sammy wasn't interested that way, and was just being Sammy? God knew the last time one of them had broken up with a girlfriend Sammy had been a hovering wreck as he tried to do normal band stuff and take care of them too.

And god, if they never had to deal with another round of broken hearted Sammy after a girl walked out claiming he forgot things and smothered her.

Yeah. Not fun to deal with a miserable Sammy while he recovered. A miserable Sammy was either a hermit or a clingy mess, and if things were really bad, would fluctuate between the two.

So they waited, and watched and Theon wondered at the enigma that Mikko could be without even trying.

~0~

New Years proved enlightening.

For one Mikko finally relaxed enough to drink more than two beers with them. For another Jonne had broken up with yet another model girlfriend and been drowning his sorrows.

When midnight rolled around he'd grabbed Mikko for the traditional midnight kiss and not gotten a polite rebuff this time. The kiss had started out hungry and desperate, at least on Jonne's side, but had quickly shifted to something rather sweet. At least Vivian thought so after he'd finished sharing around kisses with Theon and Juke and anyone else who would hold still long enough for him to plant a smooch on.

Of course as soon as Jonne came up for air he promptly passed out from all the alcohol he'd consumed.

Sammy had been right there to help Mikko put Jonne to bed with a bucket handy in case all he'd drunk came back to a return appearance.

When they came back down separately Vivian had been a trifle disappointed. Jason had laughed at him when he'd pouted and complained that Sammy was supposed to steal Mikko away before Jonne stole him for himself. He'd gotten showered with random nibbles by Antti, Janne and Christian for his complaint and they'd started a vigorous and very drunk debate over the respective merits of bedding guitarists and singers.

Sammy had gone wide eyed and slapped his hands over his ears when he realized **_he_** was the guitarist under debate and had loudly chanted 'lalalalala I can't hear you' to the amusement of Joonas, Adam and almost everyone else in the room.

Vivian never saw what reaction Mikko had, if he was even there to hear.

~0~

Spring Mikko spent making sure the renovations planned for the Warehouse would go off on schedule. So far they'd gotten the first floor mostly done and some of the base wiring in place for the other four floors. Plumbing for all five floors at least was done and inspected and Mikko was starting to move his former tenants back into the improved space.

Joonas had noted several of the bands had been surprised when Mikko offered them the papers to continue their interrupted leases at the previous rates. Hell, he'd been surprised at first, but Mikko was at heart a very fair minded person. And Joonas suspected having his only friends being musicians skewed his thoughts in favor of the kids who were just trying to get things going. Maria Mäkelä had been a bit of a dictator and had been a solid businesswoman, the only reason she'd been renting to musicians in the first place had been the fact she didn't know where to start on the much needed renovations of the building. That meant the rents were low enough that bands could afford space, but it also meant she had few other renters.

Mikko might end up with all five floors rented to musicians once he got the building finished. The kids he had already were talking and word would spread quickly that there was a place they were welcomed. Joonas had already heard Mikko talking to the caretaker about rent structure. Before he'd fixed the elevators hauling everything up however many flights of stairs had been a real killer, so dropping the rests for every floor you went up made sense. With two working elevators that wasn't so much of an issue, but Mikko was keeping the pricing structure where the higher up you went (and the further you got from the elevators) the lower the rents were.

With all the improvements people would expect him to raise rents, but by and large he wasn't. And he had things set up where renters could pay week to week, rather than monthly and that made a huge difference for a couple tenants already. Yeah, it cost a little more in the long run, but another 20 euro a month wasn't so bad when it meant you could keep your practice space another week. With the price breaks Mikko offered for paying three, six and twelve months in full in advance Joonas expected some of the bands renting now would save up to take advantage of them. And word would spread.

Joonas smiled crookedly as he kicked back on the deck with a beer. He'd gotten a weird ass call from the guys at Dynasty asking about the rents at the Warehouse and its new owner.

He'd taken some glee in being deliberately obtuse to Lauri Yholen, and it hadn't taken long before the other man had caught on and ribbed him about it. After that Joonas had been happy to answer Lauri's questions. Apparently he had a couple bands looking for practice space and word was traveling faster than he'd expected.

As soon as Mikko had another floor finished he'd likely have tenant's lined up.

With that and a few local shows lined up for when Sammy got his ass back home from Lovex's little jaunt through France and Spain, and the summer Festival season life was very good.

Joonas rested his eyes on Mikko as he grilled skewers of meat on the small hibachi they had going on the back deck.

Now all they needed to do was convince Sammy to open his eyes.

Joonas's gaze slid right and rested on Adam, who looked up and grinned at him.

Oh yes, life was good.

~0~

Sammy knew something was up the instant he got home.

For one Joonas and Adam were on his doorstep waiting for him. For another Chriss had called him just as he was leaving Christian's and warned him in his usual bland fashion that Joonas had some plot going and to watch out.

And Sammy knew it was a serious plot because _Bailey_ had gotten off his butt and sent him a text before they'd even hit home ground.

“Okay, what are you plotting.”

Joonas immediately tried to look innocent.

“Plotting? Me? I come over to share beer and say welcome home and I'm plotting something?”

Sammy gave Joonas a long measuring look.

“Given I see no beer, yes. Joonas try pulling that fleece over the eyes of someone who doesn't know you.”

He fished out his keys as Adam snorted.

“He's tried, but Mikko didn't fall for it either.”

Sammy froze.

“Joonas, what are you trying to get Mikko into?” Sammy tried to keep his tone bland, but knew from the spreading grin on Adam's face that a tone of warning had crept in anyway.

“Oh, nothing.”

Sammy knew that tone, it _never_ meant nothing.

“Joonas...”

“He's trying to convince me to let him get you and me in a room with some handcuffs.”

Mikko's tone was bland, but Sammy still spluttered and spun around to face the shorter blond. Who, Sammy noticed, had an armload of groceries.

“He **_what_**?”

Mikko winced at how shrill Sammy's voice went and Sammy felt his ears heating up. They really burned at Mikko's next dry remark.

“You, me and handcuffs, I helped Adam cuff him to the railing out back. He shut up then. Can you take a step either way? These are heavy.”

Sammy noticed he wasn't the only one who scrambled out of the way and let Mikko unlock the front door and go inside to unlock his own door. And Sammy had his hands full as well. He just sighed and dragged his gear upstairs, leaving Joonas to pout on the step and Adam to grin up at him.

Sammy grimaced, he _knew_ he'd left dirty dishes in the sink when he'd left, and his laundry was probably a fossilized lump on the floor. He took a quick breath before ducking inside.

To his surprise he didn't get swamped with the smell of rotting food and stinky wash.

A quick look around his living room told him part of why, everything that could be remotely classified as clothing had been picked up. None of the bits of paper had been disturbed, but all the old takeaway containers were gone as well. Sammy gently set down his guitar case on his couch and dumped his bag on the floor to prowl around.

It wasn't neat by any means, but it was a damn sight better than he'd left it.

“Whoa, did the cleaning fairy finally visit you?”

Sammy closed his eyes and sighed. It was a long standing joke that he'd have a tidy apartment when the cleaning fairy came to visit. Normally that meant his mother, but she picked up **_everything_**. And all his half completed projects were still lying where he'd left them. Scribbled bits of lyrics and bars of music were also lying where they had fallen amidst the rubble of discarded ideas, half read books, spare strings and strewn pencils, pens and charcoals. Only clothing and food-ish things like dishes had been disturbed. The clean and empty take out box that held spare pencils was undisturbed on his worktable.

Sammy reopened his eyes just in time to see Joonas come in and flop on the empty space on his couch.

“So, when you gonna fess up and pounce him?”

“ ** _Joonas_**!”

Joonas blinked at him mildly.

“What? You hover over him like he was family, and god knows he's better than Jani. He's a freaky little Yank, but at least he can cook and doesn't look at the rest of us like we're bugs in a jar.”

Sammy winced, Joonas had hated Jani. Not that he'd been terribly partial to any of the girls Sammy had tried bringing home since, or really indicated he felt Mikko was any kind of a prospect until just now. That provoked a thought and Sammy pounced Joonas flat to check the back of his neck.

“Hey!” Joonas squealed then wriggled as Sammy checked him over.

Adam just leaned into the wall and laughed like a lunatic until Sammy was satisfied.

“Okay, you aren't a Pod, so, who are you and what have you done with Joonas?”

“Fucker,” Sammy winced. That punch sure felt like Joonas.

“Seriously, why the change of heart here? And why the sudden interest in my sex life?”

“What sex life?”

Sammy rolled his eyes and flipped Adam off.

“Not the point, you're still interested. What's up?”

Adam answered when Joonas suddenly found himself interested in his fingernails.

“Theon said you've stopped sketching.”

Sammy groaned. He had been sketching, just his muses tended to list toward Mikko, and Mikko wasn't interested.

“Theon's a fussbudget. And that still doesn't explain the sudden interest.”

Sammy's eyes narrowed when the pair exchanged a look and then turned identical creepy grins on him.

“Oh, you'll figure it out.”

Sammy hated it when Adam went all chirpy and obtuse.

This really didn't bode well for their week off.

Maybe they'd get lucky and be off on tour again soon.

~0~

He didn't get lucky. They were officially off to record the new album. There would be a few big festival dates in there. But for the next seven weeks they were going to be moved into Christian's place and recording.

Sammy wasn't sure if he'd survive a week without murdering someone. Recording his tracks was going fairly well, and Christian was nothing if not methodical when it came to recording. Drums came first, then bass, then the guitars. Vivian and Sammy would swap off and Theon would do little bits as needed. Only then would Sammy take over the boards and records Christian's keyboards and piano bits.

Theon was last. But voice was always last, it took the longest.

Normally they did some form of delivery or take out. But after two weeks of that none of them was looking forward to another meal of Chinese takeout.

Sammy wanted to die when Christian suggested begging Mikko for a home cooked meal.

It didn't help that the guys kept finding reasons to send Sammy into the kitchen. But it became a ritual; once a week while recording Theon or Christian would con Mikko into coming over and cooking. And Mikko would cook like they'd starve if he didn't feed them to death, so that one day of cooking tended to feed them for several days.

They worked, and to Sammy's mild horror Mikko got to see how goofy he looked when he was recording. Then he got to see what kind of a petty tyrant he could be when he was recording someone else.

Running away to do a short series of shows was something of a relief.

It gave him a little time where he could just play and not think too hard.

Of course it also gave the guys time to tease the fuck out of him.

~0~ 

Then he came home and found Mikko working out. His heart about stopped to see Mikko so high above his floor. He reacted, and once he got to feel Mikko under him, to see him flushed and smiling, even if it wasn't from sex, he couldn't stop.

Christian ribbed him about being surprised they made it to dinner.

Sammy had grumbled a bit, rolled his eyes when Julian had teased Mikko about yet another language and barely kept his jealous snarl about a new Italian Attaché in the office behind his teeth.

Then after two nerve wracking weeks of playing chase Mikko had sat down and explained why he was being so weird.

And Sammy had to stomp hard on the desire to get a plane ticket and a rifle and take out one president's son. Now he knew why every time that particular Kennedy's face turned up on the TV screen Mikko got unhappy.

Once he'd gotten his temper back under control he'd set about doing everything he could to make Mikko forget that bastard had ever touched him.

Predictably Jason was the one who made the formal discovery that he and Mikko weren't just fuck buddies. Jason was just cursed to walk in at the worst possible times when someone in the band was screwing around. With Sammy being his best friend he'd seen more than he ever wanted to of a good many of Sammy's ex's.

Hardly surprising then that he was the second person in the band, after Sammy, to realize Mikko had a tattoo.

Sammy was just surprised Jason asked about it.

~0~

“Since when were you a Marine?”

Theon blinked and looked up from his lyric book when Jason asked his question. They were all hogging space at Mikko's for a change, and 'going to Sammy's' anymore really meant going to Sammy and Mikko's. Jason was leaning on the counter top and watching as Mikko did something arcane with orange juice, spices and pork chops.

Mikko didn't even blink.

“I wasn't. Where did you get that idea?”

Jason chewed his lip for a moment then just confessed.

“You have 'Semper Fidelis' tattooed on your back.”

“He does?” Julian looked surprised and Theon felt his own eyebrows going up. He'd seen Mikko without a shirt and just in shorts several times, and had blanched at the amount of scaring on his right leg, but had never noticed any ink. A quick glance around and Theon confirmed Jason and Mikko had everyone's undivided attention. Only Sammy looked un-surprised.

Mikko sighed and continued what he was doing.

“Marines gave me that tattoo.”

“Was that a usual sort of thing? I thought Marines were, erm.” Julian broke off as Mikko turned to wash his hands.

“Rather exclusive?” Mikko prompted.

Theon had to grin. That sounded better than stuck up elitist bastards, which was probably what Julian was thinking. But his few run ins with American Marines hadn't been terribly good ones.

“Uh, yeah.” Julian's sheepish expression confirmed Theon's suspicion.

Mikko snorted as he turned back and loaded the tray of adulterated pork into the top oven.

“Getting shot at tends to kill a lot of their attitude. And they really like the guys who haul their butts out of trouble and back toward home.”

That got Theon's curiosity perked up, but Vivian asked the question that Theon was curious about.

“So what did you do?”

There was a moment of stillness, but then Mikko answered.

“I was a truck driver and mechanic.”

Theon cocked his head; there was something odd in how Mikko answered. And before he could ponder it Sammy was there cuddling Mikko close and shooting them all a look they knew better then to mess with.

Sammy knew something they didn't. And whatever it was it was clearly painful for Mikko.

He'd let things sit for now. And after a series of exchanged looks they all agreed.

They'd figure it out later.

~0~

Theon found out by accident.

After a show he'd seen a lot of servicemen hanging about. Not too surprising as Ville from Flinch and Antti and Jay from Negative both had friends from their stints in the service. Not all of them were Finnish, again, not surprising. Military minds tended to find friends all over the place, especially if they actively served together.

It was the sheer number of Americans that had him surprised. And one in particular made Mikko horribly uncomfortable. It was bad enough that Mikko kept backstage as much as he could until the whole band moved out to the bar. And that was unusual, normally now it was Mikko running to the bar for water for the band. Tonight it was Brian doing those runs.

Somehow the guy got Mikko separated from the rest of them, and even in the dimness Theon could read the come on in the guy’s stance.

Great. Just fucking great. Theon closed his eyes and groaned; Sammy might be forgetful but hitting on his partner right in front of him tended to not make him happy.

Then Jason let out a growl.

Theon snapped his eyes back open just in time to see the guy pulling a very reluctant Mikko out the side door and Sammy going after them with the stiff legged stalk that boded Very Bad Things.

They moved en mass toward the side door.

Theon was expecting someone to be on the ground when they got out to the alley. What he didn't expect was for Mikko to be the one standing over the idiot and speaking in the same tones one used for halfwits.

“What part of 'no' escapes you? You walked out when I had the choice of Leavenworth of leave, because of _you_. I'm not American anymore because of **_you_**.”

Theon blinked rapidly as his mind started adding things up.

It made an ugly picture.

“Wait, they pitched you out of your mother country for being Gay?” At least he'd been speaking Finnish when he blurted that out, because the idiot on the ground just gave him a perplexed look.

Mikko just kept his focus on the idiot as Sammy growled the answer Theon expected but almost couldn't believe.

“Yes.”

The chorus of disbelieving and disgusted voices around him told Theon that the rest of the band, he glanced around and upped that to several bands, were just as sickened.

The sweet faced little Ville stepped up to the jerk and said something in his peculiar English that Theon could have kissed him for, if Jonne wouldn't have decked him for hitting on his baby brother.

“You throw him away, to bad for you. We **_keeping_** him.”

The guy staggered to his feet and took a swipe at Ville. Theon blinked and winced.

They'd all been victim to that throw; once Sofia started school Mikko had begun teaching several variations on it to her to help protect her from bullies. Now they saw it in the full force, full speed version intended for combat.

“Owwie.”

Theon gulped and had to agree with Vivian's comment as they all watched the idiot slide face first down a brick wall to land in the rough, dirty pavement of the alley.

Jason coughed.

“Rule number one, don't piss off the cook.”

The laughter was uneasy, but at least they were laughing.

~0~ 

Theon wanted to die laughing when they got ready to go on tour again.

Mikko was standing on their step and looking down in bemusement at the silk headscarf covering Sammy's hair. Sammy was on his knees in the snow with his arms wrapped around Mikko's waist. Mikko had mentioned he was being firmly requested to take some vacation time and Sammy had instantly turned around and begun badgering their manager about letting Mikko come along.

Paul had surrendered mostly because someone, and Theon suspected Vivian and Julian equally, had mentioned Mikko cooked. Given they had a real Nightliner for the European hops and that meant a real if teeny tiny kitchen, Paul might be hoping to avoid another incident where some of them ended up with food poisoning due to bad catering and worse local food.

Now Sammy just had to convince Mikko to spend his five weeks of mandatory leave with them on the road.

Unless Theon missed his guess, Sammy had decided to skip right over just asking and go right to begging pathetically.

It was kind of cute.

~0~

One thing Paul was glad of after he made his decision to let Mikko travel with the band was the fact that there was _always_ good coffee to be had. He might think morning people needed to be killed on sight, and Mikko was a morning person, but offerings of good coffee helped.

Now he knew that Mikko would considerately wait until two on travel days, especially the ones where they'd played the night before, before he started working whatever magic he did with green coffee beans and whole spices.

He'd awakened once in time to watch. He'd been confused as to why there were green coffee beans in a pan on their tiny range top, and why Mikko was putting whole star anise and cardamom pods in as well and, well, flipping them about. It had smelled good, but Paul wasn't the most awake without coffee.

Paul had blearily watched as the beans got toasted to a warm pink color and then loaded into a grinder in batches. Only once two batches had been ground did Mikko load up the coffee maker and start brewing liquid life.

And once he'd gotten his first mug full Paul noticed something odd.

Sammy was awake.

Waking Sammy was somewhat hazardous. The man slept like a brick and had a nasty habit of either flailing or sitting up sharply on waking. Paul had lost count of how many bloody noses waking Sammy had caused, it was a running joke and very serious warning that waking the Sammy was at your own risk.

But he was sitting at the little table with Theon, Julian and Jason like he'd been awake for hours.

How had Mikko gotten Sammy up and out of his bunk?

Then his brain caught up and Paul decided he _really_ didn't want to know.

~0~

Theon sighed in quiet contentment. He'd thought Mikko was insane for making such a huge lot of little flatbreads. Now with said flatbreads were filled with fried potatoes, scrambled eggs and sausage he could fully understand Mikko's reasoning. Three of these and a mug of good coffee and he felt a lot more human. And the whole crew had lined up to get fed.

He was still tickling Julian until he squealed though.

He knew what a breakfast taco was.

~0~

Brian learned by accident what Mikko's trick was for getting Sammy up without getting his nose bloodied.

He'd gotten thumped with pillows by Jason after he remarked he'd learned the secret, but there was no way in hell he was putting it into practice.

But he'd laughed himself half sick when Jason had chased Julian around the bus after the drummer had asked in tones of complete innocence if Mikko's secret 'wasn't nose wubbles?'

It didn't help that as Julian was making his third circuit of the bus Mikko asked 'nose wubbles?' and had Sammy demonstrate.

By then Julian had enough lead time to get on the bus and close the door between himself and Jason and turned to see and squealed, slapping his hands over his eyes, and yelping about virgin eyes.

Brian was sure the interviewer the band spoke to that morning was convinced they were certifiably insane when the inside jokes started flying and Sammy just looked serenely smug.

~0~

Jason stared across into Sammy's bunk and considered things. He hated knowing about his friend’s sex lives firsthand, and walking in on Theon and Vivian fooling around when drunk as three skunks in a wine vat was bad enough watching both idiots pining over Julian when all the drummer was waiting for was an invitation. Jason shook his head wryly and considered his best friend where he lay dead to the world asleep with Mikko half draped over his chest and half tucked into his side.

This was a lot better than Jani. Jani would never have inconvenienced himself for anyone. Mikko was going out and getting food enough to feed the lot of them whenever they stopped to set up for a show. There hadn't been any food poisoning issues this trip, or any horrific menu mistakes. They'd learned for every language Mikko could speak there were at least two he could read but not speak more than a word or two. That kept them from having a potentially nasty food allergy reaction out of Marko.

Mikko was a lot better than the last few of Sammy's girlfriends.

He took Sammy's forgetfulness with a sense of humor, and had taken to reminding Sammy of important things the same way the band did.

Well not like Joonas, Joonas used 'doofus' a lot when reminding Sammy of things. Paybacks Jason was sure for Sammy bullying Joonas when Essentia was recording.

Sammy was actually friends with Mikko, had been his friend before they got together. Not like with Jani where he'd been led by his gonads into trouble by a pretty face and hot body.

Jason looked over at Mikko again.

Jani had been prettier, sleek and smooth perfection. But compared to Mikko he seemed rather plastic, fake. It was like the very real flaws they all could see in Mikko made him more real. And he had his share of flaws, he could be wickedly snarky when he was tired and when pressed into a corner could be downright evil with pranks. There were some jokes he had no sense of humor on at all, mostly dealing with tampering with food. The new kid of the crew had been scared white when Mikko had caught him dumping random things into a marinating batch of beef.

The fact that the kid had just made the entire batch dangerous for Marko hadn't registered until Mikko raised the roof of the bus. Marko had been grateful Mikko had caught it, and the rest of the guys had been glad to when they realized how nastily allergic to pineapple and peanuts in combination Marko was. One or the other he was okay, both together and he was off to the emergency clinic and would likely be there overnight at least.

But balancing that Mikko was fiercely protective of his people. Pauli would never make the mistake of messing with people's food without first know what they were allergic to and Marco had been saved from a nasty surprise. And Mikko was incredibly forgiving. Pauli was actually helping cook meals now, and when they got back home the poor kid’s mother would probably die of shock. When they'd left Pauli could barely make coffee.

It was an interesting genesis, watching things change.

Jason smiled.

At least this boyfriend wouldn't willfully hurt Sammy.

And Sammy he knew wouldn't ever willfully hurt him.

He'd have to tease Theon about that bet they had riding.

Later.

He rolled back over and went back to sleep.


End file.
